Austin Kilgore | 01.22.09 www.dsnews.com

Mortgage rates broke an 11-week downward trend and increased this week, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate increased past the five percent mark this mark, averaging at 5.12 percent for the week ending January 22, up from 4.96 percent one week prior.

The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage average rate was 4.80 percent, up from last week when the average was 4.65 percent.

According to Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist Frank Nothaft, “Fixed-rate mortgages followed bond yields and edged up this holiday week. However, over the first three weeks of 2009, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 0.25 percentage points below its monthly average for December 2008. As a result, the number of mortgage applications for refinancing was roughly about 86 percent of all conventional loans over the same time period.”

In a separate study, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported mortgage application volume down 9.8 percent for the week ending January 16, according to the MBA's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.

Refinance applications were also down 12.4 percent, and their share of mortgage activity also decreased from 85.3 percent of total applications to 83.3 percent.